Sláinte Slugs!

While my wife was picking lettuce this afternoon in the garden, she found a few slugs. We have had a very wet year, in fact we have surpassed our yearly average already. So, I decided to toast the little buggers and give 'em a drink. I have read about beer traps, but never needed to use one. So, I buried a dish up to an inch from the top and put some Keystone in it. We'll see if I catch any.


After finishing the rest of the 'stone, I had to take a picture of the beans. They have completely outgrown their allotted space. If you look closely you can see a few ticked off pepper plants getting caught up in the mix.


I reached a personal record in my compost pile, 150 degrees. Yes, I have a compost thermometer (pause for snickering). The science of compost fascinates me to no end. I have been experimenting with composting coffee grounds obtained from a local coffee shop. I have been mixing them in with a little wood ash (to counteract any extra acidity) and then buried with last fall's leaves (and of course kitchen and garden scraps).


We are saving peas as next year's seeds for the first time. These are snap peas. I ended up saving way more than will fit in my garden, but they won't go to waste.


This tiny little guy is an alpine strawberry, we started them indoors this winter for funs and we finally got to eat one. Although they don't get much bigger than this, I picked it a bit too early and it didn't taste that great. I picked it in my zeal to win the harvest over the birds. I won, they lost, it was very tart.

Spring is Here

Yesterday was one of the first days where the weather felt good enough to be outside. So I took the opportunity to screen some compost so I can be prepared to plant under my cold frame. Which, by the by, finally made it outside. We planted our leafy greens within the cold frame, but I haven't taken any pictures yet. I digress. It may be a true testament to how big of nerd I am that I am very proud of my compost. So here it is.




The screen is 1/4" hardware cloth. I realized right quick that I need to construct a larger one approximately wheelbarrow sized. The last picture is my two bin compost system. I turned the full side over into the side I just emptied out into the wheelbarrow. I'll leave it there to finish and I will start a new pile in the now empty side.